Douglas Garland, 54, was taken into police custody over the weekend. Calgary police, RCMP, and the Calgary Fire Department are continuing a grid search of a property north of Calgary. Neighbours say Garland lives on the acreage being searched and also has links to the family of Nathan O’Brien and Kathryn and Alvin Liknes who disappeared one week ago.

Federal court records indicate Douglas Garland has a criminal history in B.C. In a 2005 judgment, Justice Miller says that Garland was charged for producing his own amphetamines in 1992, but moved away from Alberta to Vancouver, assuming the name of a dead person, Matthew Kemper Hartley. He applied for a social insurance number and driver’s license with the alias.

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Garland worked at Can Test Ltd. and the British Columbia Institute of Technology, until he was arrested in 1999. He pleaded guilty to all his drug offences and the charges in connection with his assumed identity, and served time in prison.